Optimization of multi-sink Wi-Fi display with intelligent multi-session encoding

ABSTRACT

Systems, apparatuses, and methods may provide for multi-session encoding to optimize multiple encoding sessions on Wi-Fi display (WFD) source devices when the WFD source devices are connected to multiple sink devices. The multiple encoding sessions may be optimized with encoding hints that are generated by a compositor and transmitted to a pre-encoding checking device. The encoding session that has the highest encoding resolution is subjected to hierarchical motion estimation (HME) processing, and the encoding sessions that have lower resolutions are optimized based on a motion vector prediction hint generated by the encoding session that has the highest encoding resolution and a scaling factor.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a U.S. National Phase Patent Application,which claims the benefit of priority to International Patent ApplicationNo. PCT/CN2017/079010 filed on Mar. 31, 2017.

BACKGROUND Technical Field

Embodiments generally relate to an intelligent multi-session encodingprocess. More particularly, the embodiments relate to a system thatoptimizes the multiple encoding session on a Wi-Fi display (WFD) sourcedevice based on hints from a compositor when the WFD source device isconnected to multiple sink (multi-sink) devices.

Discussion

In WFD multi-sink topology, a single WFD Release 2 (WFD R2) sourcedevice may establish multiple concurrent WFD sessions with “N” WFD R2sink devices. For each WFD session that includes an audio/video (A/V)payload, a dedicated encoding session may be required. Concurrentencoding sessions that are performed at the source device may take thesame A/V content that is transmitted from a local compositor, and eachindividual session may differ from the other sessions by encodingconfigurations such as resolution and bitrate. Therefore, powerconsumption and latency may be increased.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The various advantages of the embodiments of the present invention willbecome apparent to one skilled in the art by reading the followingspecification and appended claims, and by referencing the followingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example of a multi-sink multi-sessionencoding system according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of another example of a multi-sinkmulti-session encoding system according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an illustration of an example of a method of performingmulti-session encoding in a multi-sink Wi-Fi display apparatus accordingto an embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an illustration of an example of another method of performinga multi-session encoding operation in a multi-sink Wi-Fi displayapparatus according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5 is an illustration of a many to one wireless display systemaccording to an embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example of a processor according to anembodiment; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an example of a computing system accordingto an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Turning now to FIG. 1 , a multi-sink multi-session encoding system 100according to an exemplary embodiment is illustrated. The multi-sessionencoding system 100 may include a compositor 110, a pre-encoding checker120, one or more data scaling devices 130 (130 a, 130 b, 130 c), one ormore encoders 140 (140 a, 140 b, 140 c), one or more transmitters 150(150 a, 150 b, 150 c), and a power supply 160 to supply power to themulti-sink multi-session encoding system 100.

In the multi-sink topology as illustrated in FIG. 1 , the compositor110, which may be a Wi-Fi display (WFD) source device, may establishmultiple concurrent WFD sessions with “N” WFD sink devices (not shown).The compositor or source device 110 may be a WFD Release 2 (R2) sourcedevice, but is not limited thereto. Similarly, the sink devices (notshown) may be WFD R2 sink devices.

A/V data may be generated by the compositor 110 and transmitted to thepre-encoding checker 120, where predetermined pre-encoding processestake place. Multiple concurrent data streams may subsequently betransmitted to the one or more data scalers 130 (130 a, 130 b, 130 c),where the A/V data may be digitized and spatially scaled topredetermined resolutions. The concurrent data streams may subsequentlybe transmitted to one or more encoding devices or encoding sessions 140(140 a, 140 b, 140 c), where various encoding operations may beperformed. The encoded concurrent data streams may then be transmittedto one or more multi-sink devices (not shown) via one or moretransmitting devices 150 (150 a, 150 b, 150 c).

Turning now to FIG. 2 , the compositor 110 may generate an audio/video(A/V) stream that may be transmitted to the pre-encoding checker 120.The compositor 110 may also generate useful hints 180, and transmit theuseful hints 180 to the pre-encoding checker 120. The useful hints 180may be used to optimize the encoding processes performed by the encoders140 (140 a, 140 b, 140 c). The hints 180 may include, but are notlimited to, still scene hints or flags, layer geometry hints, dirtyrectangle hints, and transform matrix hints. Accordingly, multipleencoding sessions 140 (140 a, 140 b, 140 c) that share the same datasource or compositor 110 may be optimized on the basis of the hints 180received from the compositor 110.

The still scene hints may trigger the encoders 140 (140 a, 140 b, 140 c)to insert skip frames directly into the A/V stream. Accordingly,subsequent encoding stages may be skipped during the encoding process.

The layer geometry hints may add or remove layers from a layer list, andmay also include layer rotation, layer scaling, etc. The layer geometryhints may be used to detect changes, and I frames may be intelligentlyinserted into the A/V stream to create an adaptive group of pictures(GOP).

The dirty rectangle hints may be used to indicate the areas of an imagethat have to be redrawn or repainted. Rectangular areas of the image maybe evaluated to determine which areas of the image have to be redrawn,repainted, or updated. Whenever a change is made to a particularrectangular area of the image, this area may be marked as being dirty,and its rectangular area may be added to a list of dirty rectangles. Thedirty rectangle hints may be converted to dirty regions of interest(ROI) to optimize the encoding operations, for example, to only encodethe dirty rectangle areas or apply different quantization parameters toeach macro-block in the dirty areas.

Transform matrix hints, for example, sub window or layer movement, maybe used to derive the motion vector for the corresponding layer tooptimize encoding motion estimation.

After the pre-encoding check has been performed by the pre-encodingchecker 120, A/V data streams may be concurrently transmitted to one ormore data scalers 130 (130 a, 130 b, 130 c). The scalers 130 (130 a, 130b, 130 c) may digitize and spatially scale the A/V data streams tospecific encoding resolutions. The encoding session 140 (140 a, 140 b,140 c) that receives an A/V data stream that has the highest resolutionmay be subjected to downscaling (DS) and Hierarchical Motion Estimation(HME) processing by a DS/HME processor 145. The DS/HME processor 145 maygenerate motion vector predictor (MVP) hints to trigger a heuristicprocess in a rate distortion optimization (RDO) and mode decisionprocessor 155 a.

As illustrated in FIG. 2 , only the encoding session that has thehighest resolution may be subjected to DS/HME processing. Accordingly,duplicated multi-level DS/HME processing in multiple encoding sessionsmay be avoided in encoding sessions that have lower resolutions, and insome cases, the entire encoding process may be skipped. The compositor110 may achieve similar encoding quality as in a case where eachencoding session of the one or more encoding sessions includes a DS/HMEprocessor. This may result in lower latency and reduced powerconsumption by the multi-sink multi-session encoding system.

Returning to FIG. 2 , multi-level HME operations may only be performedonce by the DS/HME 145 in the encoding session, for example, encodingsession 140 a, that is processing a data stream that has the highestresolution among the multiple data streams. The hints 180 that arereceived during the pre-encoding process may be used to optimize themotion estimation processes of each of the encoding sessions 140 (140 a,140 b, 140 c).

The encoding sessions, for example, encoding sessions 140 b and 140 c,that have encoding resolutions that differ from the encoding resolutionof encoding session 140 a, may leverage motion vector prediction hints170 derived from the encoding session 140 a having the highest encodingresolution among the multiple encoding sessions 140, and a scalingfactor to obtain the motion vector prediction hint for the subsequentencoding stages (a scaled motion vector). The scaling factor may bedetermined based on the quotient of the resolution of the correspondingencoding session and the resolution of the encoding session with thehighest resolution. The downscaled motion vector prediction hints may berounded down to the nearest whole number. Additionally, if the ROIderived from the dirty rectangle hint is provided, the ROI may also bescaled with the same scaling factor.

Returning to FIG. 2 , for encoding sessions, for example, encodingsessions 140 b, 140 c that require a bitrate that is different from thebitrate of encoding session 140 a, the RDO and mode decision processor155 b, 155 c may adjust the bitrate for the corresponding encodingsession.

Turning now to FIG. 3 , a multi-sink multi-session encoding method 300is illustrated. The method 300 may generally be implemented in a devicesuch as, for example, a smart phone, tablet computer, notebook computer,tablet computer, convertible tablet, PDA, MID, wearable computer,desktop computer, camcorder, video recorder, media player, smart TV,gaming console, etc. More particularly, the method 300 may beimplemented as a set of logic instructions stored in a machine orcomputer-readable medium of a memory such as random access memory (RAM),read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), firmware, flash memory,etc., in configurable logic such as, for example, programmable logicarrays (PLAs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), complexprogrammable logic devices (CPLDs), in fixed-functionality logichardware using circuit technology such as application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), complementary metal oxide semiconductor(CMOS) or transistor-transistor logic (TTL) technology, or anycombination thereof. For example, computer program code to carry outoperations shown in method 300 may be written in any combination of oneor more programming languages, including an object oriented programminglanguage such as JAVA, SMALLTALK, C++ or the like and conventionalprocedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming languageor similar programming languages.

The illustrated method begins at processing block 305, where adetermination is made whether the WFD device is configured in amulti-sink mode. Specifically, a determination is made whether a sourcedevice, for example compositor 110 (FIG. 1 ), is configured to transmitA/V data to multiple sink devices (not shown). If a determination ismade that the WFD device is configured in a multi-sink mode, inprocessing block 310 multiple encoding sessions may be created, and acorrelation between the multiple encoding sessions and the single sourcedevice or compositor 110 (FIG. 1 ) may be established.

In processing block 315, the compositor 110 (FIG. 1 ) may generateuseful hints 180 (FIG. 1 ) that may be used to optimize encodingprocesses to be performed on the A/V data by encoding sessions 140 (140a, 140 b, 140 c) (FIG. 1 ). The hints may include, but are not limitedto, still scene hints or flags, layer geometry hints, dirty rectanglehints, and transform matrix hints.

In processing block 320, a pre-encoding check may be performed on theA/V data stream according to the hints generated by the compositor 110(FIG. 1 ), and in processing block 325, a determination is made whethernew A/V data has been received at the encoding sessions 140 (140 a, 140b, 140 c) (FIG. 1 ). If it is determined that new A/V data has beenreceived, a determination is made at processing block 330 with regard towhether the specific encoding session has the highest encodingresolution among the one or more encoding sessions 140 (140 a, 140 b,140 c) (FIG. 1 ). If the specific encoding session is the encodingsession that has the highest encoding resolution among the one or moreencoding sessions, then at processing block 335 HME processing isperformed on the A/V data that is being processed by that specificencoding session. Specifically, hierarchical searches may be performedon the current frame to determine motion vectors to encode movingimages.

On the other hand, if the specific encoding session is not the encodingsession that has the highest encoding resolution among the one or moreencoding sessions 140 (140 a, 140 b, 140 c) (FIG. 1 ), at illustratedprocessing block 340, the lower resolution encoding sessions await thehierarchical motion estimation of the encoding session that has thehighest encoding resolution, and subsequently receive and leverage, atprocessing block 345, the motion vector prediction hint of the encodingsession with the highest resolution and a scaling factor to obtain amotion vector predictor hint for the encoding stages of the lowerresolution encoding sessions.

At processing block 350, the encoding sessions that require differentbitrates from the encoding session that has the highest encodingresolution may be subjected to RDO processing, mode decision processing,and rate control. At processing block 355, motion compensationprocessing may be performed on the A/V stream by motion compensationprocessors (165 a, 165 b, 165 c) (FIG. 2 ).

At processing block 360, if the last frame of the A/V stream has beenprocessed, the illustrated method ends at processing block 365.Alternately, if at processing block 360 a determination is made that thelast frame of the A/V stream has not been processed, the illustratedmethod returns to processing block 325.

Turning now to FIG. 4 , another method 400 of performing multi-sessionencoding in a multi-sink Wi-Fi display apparatus is shown. The method400 may generally be implemented in a device such as, for example, asmart phone, tablet computer, notebook computer, tablet computer,convertible tablet, PDA, MID, wearable computer, desktop computer,camcorder, video recorder, media player, smart TV, gaming console, etc.,already discussed. More particularly, the method 400 may be implementedas a set of logic instructions stored in a machine- or computer-readablemedium of a memory such RAM, ROM, PROM, firmware, flash memory, etc., inconfigurable logic such as, for example, PLAs, FPGAs, CPLDs, infixed-functionality logic hardware using circuit technology such asASIC, CMOS or TTL technology, or any combination thereof. For example,computer program code to carry out operations shown in method 400 may bewritten in any combination of one or more programming languages,including an object oriented programming language such as JAVA,SMALLTALK, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programminglanguages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programminglanguages.

The illustrated method begins at processing block 410, where A/V contentand one or more video encoding hints may be generated by a compositor(FIG. 2 ). The hints may be used to optimize multiple encoding sessions.Pre-video encoding operations may be performed on the A/V data based onthe generated video encoding hints at processing block 420.

At processing block 430, a scaled motion vector prediction hint may begenerated by a hierarchical motion estimation processor 145 (FIG. 2 ) inan encoding session that has the highest encoding resolution. The A/Vstreams in encoding sessions that have lower encoding resolutions may beencoded based on the scaled motion vector prediction hint in processingblock 440.

Turning now to FIG. 5 , another exemplary embodiment of the applicationis illustrated. The exemplary embodiment illustrates a many to onecommunication system 500 wherein a plurality of transmitter devices 520,530, 540, 550 may be connected to a single receiver 510. The receiver510 may include a screen or display device 510 a, where various imagesmay be displayed, a parameter extractor 560, and a display manager 570.The receiver may be a Miracast™ receiver, but is not limited thereto.

According to the exemplary embodiment, the receiver 510 may representeach transmitter device 520, 530, 540, 550 on the display device 510 ain a minimized manner via a device classification thumbnail image (520a, 550 a) and an associated information bar (520 b, 550 b) that includesdevice information that uniquely identifies each transmitter device 520,530, 540, 550 to the end user of the receiver 510.

The transmitter devices 520, 530, 540, 550 may connect to the receiver510 by utilizing a Wi-Fi direct connectivity standard. Once theconnection between the transmitter devices 520, 530, 540, 550 and thereceiver 510 has been established, or during a capability negotiationphase of the connection phase, each of the transmission devices 520,530, 540, 550 may send transmitter device parameters or additionalinformation of itself, for example, a friendly name, device modelnumber, color, or a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), to the receiver510 via a Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) SET PARAMETER message withthe following tag:

-   -   wfd-device-info=“wfd_device_info:” SP model_number SP    -   friendly_name SP color SP URI    -   model_number=Device model number from manufacturer    -   friendly_name=device or hostname set by device user    -   color=color of the device, either obtained from the device or        through user input    -   URI=user identifier, e.g., user account identifier/email, user        workspace account name

When the receiver 510 receives the SET PARAMETER message, the parameterextractor 560 of the receiver 510 may extract the model number, color,the friendly name, and URI of the transmission devices 520, 530, 540,550, and associate these extracted parameters with the sessioncorresponding to each transmission device 520, 530, 540, 550. Thedisplay manager 570 may derive a transmitter identifier based on theextracted transmitter device parameters.

Additionally, the receiver 510 may determine the type of transmissiondevice 520, 530, 540, 550 on the basis of the model number, either byusing a list of models available to the receiver 510, or by utilizingexternal sources such as Internet/Cloud network services. By combiningthe friendly name with the model number of the transmission device 520,530, 540, 550, the receiver 510 may create a unique, readable name, or atransmitter identifier, for each transmission device 520, 530, 540, 550,for example, “Joe's IBM PDA”, where “Joe” is the friendly name in theRTSP SET PARAMETER message, and “IBM PDA” is derived from the modelnumber.

The receiver 510 may also associate a bitmap (either from its owndatabase or downloaded from the Internet or the Cloud network) for eachdevice type once the receiver 510 has determined the device type fromthe model number.

Additionally, each transmission device 520, 530, 540, 550 may alsotransmit a static image, for example a home screen of the transmissiondevice 520, 530, 540, 550, or a user configured image as an auxiliarystream in the MPEG-TS stream from the transmission device 520, 530, 540,550 to the receiver 510. The receiver 510 may use this static image as athumbnail image 520 a, 550 a, to represent the transmission device 520,530, 540, 550 when the transmission device 520, 530, 540, 550 isminimized on the display device 510 a of the receiver 510. Alternately,the receiver 510 may use the last image or video frame that wastransmitted from each transmission device 520, 530, 540, 550 before thetransmission device 520, 530, 540, 550 is minimized on the displaydevice 510 a of the receiver 510.

The receiver 510 may depict each minimized transmission device 520, 530,540, 550 as a thumbnail image 520 a, 550 a with an information bar 520b, 550 b. The thumbnail image 520 a, 550 a may consist of a bitmapdepicting the device type and overlaid with the static image transmittedby the transmission device 520, 530, 540, 550 in the MPEG-TS stream. Theinformation bar 520 b, 550 b may contain the device information, forexample, the friendly name, model number, device type, or URI. Thereceiver 510 may also display the thumbnail image 520 a, 550 a in anoutlined form factor of the transmission device 520, 530, 540, 550 basedon the received model number. Alternately, the outline image of thetransmission device 520, 530, 540, 550 may be obtained from an externaloutline repository that the receiver 510 has access to.

Additionally, the color of the border of the thumbnail image 520 a, 550a may be the color of the transmission device 520, 530, 540, 550. Thisallows the easy distinction of devices that have the same model numberbut different colors.

FIG. 6 illustrates a processor core 200 according to one embodiment. Theprocessor core 200 may be the core for any type of processor, such as amicro-processor, an embedded processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), a network processor, or other device to execute code. Althoughonly one processor core 200 is illustrated in FIG. 6 , a processingelement may alternatively include more than one of the processor core200 illustrated in FIG. 6 . The processor core 200 may be asingle-threaded core or, for at least one embodiment, the processor core200 may be multithreaded in that it may include more than one hardwarethread context (or “logical processor”) per core.

FIG. 6 also illustrates a memory 270 coupled to the processor core 200.The memory 270 may be any of a wide variety of memories (includingvarious layers of memory hierarchy) as are known or otherwise availableto those of skill in the art. The memory 270 may include one or morecode 213 instruction(s) to be executed by the processor core 200,wherein the code 213 may implement the method 300 (FIG. 3 ), or themethod 400 (FIG. 4 ), already discussed. The processor core 200 followsa program sequence of instructions indicated by the code 213. Eachinstruction may enter a front end portion 210 and be processed by one ormore decoders 220. The decoder 220 may generate as its output a microoperation such as a fixed width micro operation in a predefined format,or may generate other instructions, microinstructions, or controlsignals that reflect the original code instruction. The illustratedfront end portion 210 also includes register renaming logic 225 andscheduling logic 230, which generally allocate resources and queue theoperation corresponding to the convert instruction for execution.

The processor core 200 is shown including execution logic 250 having aset of execution units 255-1 through 255-N. Some embodiments may includea number of execution units dedicated to specific functions or sets offunctions. Other embodiments may include only one execution unit or oneexecution unit that can perform a particular function. The illustratedexecution logic 250 performs the operations specified by codeinstructions.

After completion of execution of the operations specified by the codeinstructions, back end logic 260 retires the instructions of the code213. In one embodiment, the processor core 200 allows out of orderexecution but requires in order retirement of instructions. Retirementlogic 265 may take a variety of forms as known to those of skill in theart (e.g., re-order buffers or the like). In this manner, the processorcore 200 is transformed during execution of the code 213, at least interms of the output generated by the decoder, the hardware registers andtables utilized by the register renaming logic 225, and any registers(not shown) modified by the execution logic 250.

Although not illustrated in FIG. 6 , a processing element may includeother elements on chip with the processor core 200. For example, aprocessing element may include memory control logic along with theprocessor core 200. The processing element may include I/O control logicand/or may include I/O control logic integrated with memory controllogic. The processing element may also include one or more caches.

Referring now to FIG. 7 , shown is a block diagram of a computing system1000 embodiment in accordance with an embodiment. Shown in FIG. 7 is amultiprocessor system 1000 that includes a first processing element 1070and a second processing element 1080. While two processing elements 1070and 1080 are shown, it is to be understood that an embodiment of thesystem 1000 may also include only one such processing element.

The system 1000 is illustrated as a point-to-point interconnect system,wherein the first processing element 1070 and the second processingelement 1080 are coupled via a point-to-point interconnect 1050. Itshould be understood that any or all of the interconnects illustrated inFIG. 7 may be implemented as a multi-drop bus rather than point-to-pointinterconnect.

As shown in FIG. 7 , each of processing elements 1070 and 1080 may bemulticore processors, including first and second processor cores (i.e.,processor cores 1074 a and 1074 b and processor cores 1084 a and 1084b). Such cores 1074 a, 1074 b, 1084 a, 1084 b may be configured toexecute instruction code in a manner similar to that discussed above inconnection with FIG. 6 .

Each processing element 1070, 1080 may include at least one shared cache1896 a, 1896 b. The shared cache 1896 a, 1896 b may store data (e.g.,instructions) that are utilized by one or more components of theprocessor, such as the cores 1074 a, 1074 b and 1084 a, 1084 b,respectively. For example, the shared cache 1896 a, 1896 b may locallycache data stored in a memory 1032, 1034 for faster access by componentsof the processor. In one or more embodiments, the shared cache 1896 a,1896 b may include one or more mid-level caches, such as level 2 (L2),level 3 (L3), level 4 (L4), or other levels of cache, a last level cache(LLC), and/or combinations thereof.

While shown with only two processing elements 1070, 1080, it is to beunderstood that the scope of the embodiments are not so limited. Inother embodiments, one or more additional processing elements may bepresent in a given processor. Alternatively, one or more of processingelements 1070, 1080 may be an element other than a processor, such as anaccelerator or a field programmable gate array. For example, additionalprocessing element(s) may include additional processors(s) that are thesame as a first processor 1070, additional processor(s) that areheterogeneous or asymmetric to processor a first processor 1070,accelerators (such as, e.g., graphics accelerators or digital signalprocessing (DSP) units), field programmable gate arrays, or any otherprocessing element. There can be a variety of differences between theprocessing elements 1070, 1080 in terms of a spectrum of metrics ofmerit including architectural, micro architectural, thermal, powerconsumption characteristics, and the like. These differences mayeffectively manifest themselves as asymmetry and heterogeneity amongstthe processing elements 1070, 1080. For at least one embodiment, thevarious processing elements 1070, 1080 may reside in the same diepackage.

The first processing element 1070 may further include memory controllerlogic (MC) 1072 and point-to-point (P-P) interfaces 1076 and 1078.Similarly, the second processing element 1080 may include a MC 1082 andP-P interfaces 1086 and 1088. As shown in FIG. 6 , MC's 1072 and 1082couple the processors to respective memories, namely a memory 1032 and amemory 1034, which may be portions of main memory locally attached tothe respective processors. While the MC 1072 and 1082 is illustrated asintegrated into the processing elements 1070, 1080, for alternativeembodiments the MC logic may be discrete logic outside the processingelements 1070, 1080 rather than integrated therein.

The first processing element 1070 and the second processing element 1080may be coupled to an I/O subsystem 1090 via P-P interconnects 1076 1086,respectively. As shown in FIG. 6 , the I/O subsystem 1090 includes P-Pinterfaces 1094 and 1098. Furthermore, I/O subsystem 1090 includes aninterface 1092 to couple I/O subsystem 1090 with a high performancegraphics engine 1038. In one embodiment, bus 1049 may be used to couplethe graphics engine 1038 to the I/O subsystem 1090. Alternately, apoint-to-point interconnect may couple these components.

In turn, I/O subsystem 1090 may be coupled to a first bus 1016 via aninterface 1096. In one embodiment, the first bus 1016 may be aPeripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, or a bus such as a PCIExpress bus or another third generation I/O interconnect bus, althoughthe scope of the embodiments are not so limited.

As shown in FIG. 7 , various I/O devices 1014 (e.g., speakers, cameras,sensors) may be coupled to the first bus 1016, along with a bus bridge1018, which may couple the first bus 1016 to a second bus 1020. In oneembodiment, the second bus 1020 may be a low pin count (LPC) bus.Various devices may be coupled to the second bus 1020 including, forexample, a keyboard/mouse 1012, communication device(s) 1026, and a datastorage unit 1019 such as a disk drive or other mass storage device thatmay include code 1030, in one embodiment. The illustrated code 1030 mayimplement the method 300 (FIG. 3 ), or the method 400 (FIG. 4 ), alreadydiscussed. Further, an audio I/O 1024 may be coupled to second bus 1020and a battery 1010 may supply power to the computing system 1000.

Note that other embodiments are contemplated. For example, instead ofthe point-to-point architecture of FIG. 7 , a system may implement amulti-drop bus or another such communication topology. Also, theelements of FIG. 7 may alternatively be partitioned using more or fewerintegrated chips than shown in FIG. 7 .

ADDITIONAL NOTES AND EXAMPLES

Example 1 may include a multi-sink multi-session encoding systemcomprising a power supply to provide power to the system, and a Wi-Fidisplay (WFD) source device including a compositor to generate one ormore video streams and one or more video encoding hints, a pre-encodingchecker to perform pre-video encoding operations based on the one ormore video encoding hints, a scaler to generate a scaled motion vectorpredictor hint, one or more encoders to encode the one or more videostreams in one or more encoding sessions, and one or more transmittersto transmit the one or more encoded video streams.

Example 2 may include the system of example 1, wherein the videoencoding hints are to include one or more of a still scene hint, a layergeometry hint, a dirty rectangle, or a transform matrix hint.

Example 3 may include the system of any one of examples 1 and 2, whereinhierarchical motion estimation (HME) operations are to be performed on afirst encoding session of the one or more encoding sessions that has afirst resolution.

Example 4 may include the system of example 3, wherein one or moresecond encoding sessions that have a resolution lower than the firstresolution use a video encoding hint of the first encoding session and ascaling factor to obtain the scaled motion vector prediction hint.

Example 5 may include the system of example 4, wherein the scaled motionvector prediction hint is to be applied to encoding stages for the oneor more second encoding sessions.

Example 6 may include the system of example 4, wherein the scalingfactor is equal to a ratio of a resolution of each of the one or moresecond corresponding encoding sessions to the resolution of the firstencoding session.

Example 7 may include a method of conducting multi-sink multi-sessionencoding comprising generating, by a compositor, video content and oneor more video encoding hints, performing one or more pre-video encodingoperations on the video content based on the one or more video encodinghints, generating a scaled motion vector predictor hint, and encodingone or more video streams in one or more encoding sessions based on thescaled motion vector predictor hint.

Example 8 may include the method of example 7, wherein the videoencoding hints include one or more of a still scene hint, a layergeometry hint, a dirty rectangle, or a transform matrix hint.

Example 9 may include the method of any one of examples 7 and 8, furthercomprising performing one or more hierarchical motion estimation (HME)operations during a first encoding session of the one or more encodingsessions that has a first resolution.

Example 10 may include the method of example 9, wherein one or moresecond encoding sessions that have a resolution lower than the firstresolution use a video encoding hint of the first encoding session and ascaling factor to obtain the scaled motion vector prediction hint.

Example 11 may include the method example 10, wherein the scaled motionvector prediction hint is applied to one or more encoding stagesassociated with the one or more second encoding sessions.

Example 12 may include the method of example 10, wherein the scalingfactor is equal to a ratio of a resolution of each of the one or moresecond encoding sessions to the resolution of the first encodingsession.

Example 13 may include a multi-sink multi-session encoding apparatuscomprising a compositor to generate one or more video streams and one ormore video encoding hints, a pre-encoding checker to perform pre-videoencoding operations based on the one or more video encoding hints, ascaler to generate a scaled motion vector predictor hint, and one ormore encoders to encode the one or more video streams in one or moreencoding sessions.

Example 14 may include the apparatus of example 13, wherein the videoencoding hints are to include one or more of a still scene hint, a layergeometry hint, a dirty rectangle, or a transform matrix hint.

Example 15 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 13 and 14,wherein hierarchical motion estimation (HME) operations are to beperformed on a first encoding session of the one or more encodingsessions that has a first resolution.

Example 16 may include the apparatus of example 15, wherein one or moresecond encoding sessions that have a resolution lower than the firstresolution use a video encoding hint of the first encoding session and ascaling factor to obtain the scaled motion vector prediction hint.

Example 17 may include the apparatus of example 16, wherein the scaledmotion vector prediction hint is to be applied to encoding stages forthe one or more second encoding sessions.

Example 18 may include the apparatus of example 16, wherein the scalingfactor is equal to a ratio of a resolution of each of the one or moresecond corresponding encoding sessions to the resolution of the firstencoding session.

Example 19 may include at least one computer readable storage mediumcomprising a set of instructions, which when executed by an apparatus,cause the apparatus to generate video content and one or more videoencoding hints, perform one or more pre-video encoding operations on thevideo content based on the one or more video encoding hints, generate ascaled motion vector predictor hint, and encode one or more videostreams in one or more encoding sessions based on the scaled motionvector predictor hint.

Example 20 may include the at least one computer readable storage mediumof example 19, wherein the video encoding hints include one or more of astill scene hint, a layer geometry hint, a dirty rectangle, or atransform matrix hint.

Example 21 may include the at least one computer readable storage mediumof any one of examples 19 and 20, further comprising performing one ormore hierarchical motion estimation (HME) operations during a firstencoding session of the one or more encoding sessions that has a firstresolution.

Example 22 may include the at least one computer readable storage mediumof example 21, wherein one or more second encoding sessions that have aresolution lower than the first resolution use a video encoding hint ofthe first encoding session and a scaling factor to obtain the scaledmotion vector prediction hint.

Example 23 may include the at least one computer readable storage mediumof example 22, wherein the scaled motion vector prediction hint isapplied to one or more encoding stages associated with the one or moresecond encoding sessions.

Example 24 may include the at least one computer readable storage mediumof example 22, wherein the scaling factor is equal to a ratio of aresolution of each of the one or more second encoding sessions to theresolution of the first encoding session.

Example 25 may include a multi-sink multi-session encoding apparatuscomprising means for generating, by a compositor, video content and oneor more video encoding hints, means for performing one or more pre-videoencoding operations on the video content based on the one or more videoencoding hints, means for generating a scaled motion vector predictorhint, and means for encoding one or more video streams in one or moreencoding sessions based on the scaled motion vector predictor hint.

Example 26 may include the apparatus of example 25, wherein the videoencoding hints include one or more of a still scene hint, a layergeometry hint, a dirty rectangle, or a transform matrix hint.

Example 27 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 25 and 26,further comprising means for performing one or more hierarchical motionestimation (HME) operations during a first encoding session of the oneor more encoding sessions that has a first resolution.

Example 28 may include the apparatus of example 27, wherein one or moresecond encoding sessions that have a resolution lower than the firstresolution is to use a video encoding hint of the first encoding sessionand a scaling factor to obtain the scaled motion vector prediction hint.

Example 29 may include the apparatus example 28, wherein the scaledmotion vector prediction hint is applied to one or more encoding stagesassociated with the one or more second encoding sessions.

Example 30 may include the apparatus of example 28, wherein the scalingfactor is equal to a ratio of a resolution of each of the one or moresecond encoding sessions to the resolution of the first encodingsession.

Example 31 may include a many-to-one wireless display system comprisingone or more transmitter devices, a receiver device to receive a MovingPicture Experts Group (MPEG) transport stream (TS) from the one or moretransmitter devices, the receiver device comprising a parameterextractor to extract transmitter device parameters from the MPEG-TS, adisplay manager to derive a transmitter identifier based on theextracted transmitter device parameters, and a display device to displaya thumbnail image of the one or more transmitter devices and anassociated information bar that includes the transmitter identifier.

Example 32 may include the system of example 31, wherein the transmitterdevice parameters include one or more of a friendly name, a transmitterdevice model number, a transmitter device type, a uniform resourceidentifier (URI), or a transmitter device color.

Example 33 may include the system of example 31, wherein the thumbnailimage is a bitmap depicting a transmitter device type.

Embodiments described herein are applicable for use with all types ofsemiconductor integrated circuit (“IC”) chips. Examples of these ICchips include but are not limited to processors, controllers, chipsetcomponents, programmable logic arrays (PLAs), memory chips, networkchips, and the like. In addition, in some of the drawings, signalconductor lines are represented with lines. Some may be different, toindicate more constituent signal paths, have a number label, to indicatea number of constituent signal paths, and/or have arrows at one or moreends, to indicate primary information flow direction. This, however,should not be construed in a limiting manner. Rather, such added detailmay be used in connection with one or more exemplary embodiments tofacilitate easier understanding of a circuit. Any represented signallines, whether or not having additional information, may actuallycomprise one or more signals that may travel in multiple directions andmay be implemented with any suitable type of signal scheme, e.g.,digital or analog lines implemented with differential pairs, opticalfiber lines, and/or single-ended lines.

Example sizes/models/values/ranges may have been given, althoughembodiments of the present invention are not limited to the same. Asmanufacturing techniques (e.g., photolithography) mature over time, itis expected that devices of smaller size could be manufactured. Inaddition, well known power/ground connections to IC chips and othercomponents may or may not be shown within the figures, for simplicity ofillustration and discussion, and so as not to obscure certain aspects ofthe embodiments of the invention. Further, arrangements may be shown inblock diagram form in order to avoid obscuring embodiments of theinvention, and also in view of the fact that specifics with respect toimplementation of such block diagram arrangements are highly dependentupon the platform within which the embodiment is to be implemented,i.e., such specifics should be well within purview of one skilled in theart. Where specific details (e.g., circuits) are set forth in order todescribe example embodiments of the invention, it should be apparent toone skilled in the art that embodiments of the invention can bepracticed without, or with variation of, these specific details. Thedescription is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of limiting.

The term “coupled” may be used herein to refer to any type ofrelationship, direct or indirect, between the components in question,and may apply to electrical, mechanical, fluid, optical,electromagnetic, electromechanical or other connections. In addition,the terms “first”, “second”, etc. may be used herein only to facilitatediscussion, and carry no particular temporal or chronologicalsignificance unless otherwise indicated.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate from the foregoing descriptionthat the broad techniques of the embodiments of the present inventioncan be implemented in a variety of forms. Therefore, while theembodiments of this invention have been described in connection withparticular examples thereof, the true scope of the embodiments of theinvention should not be so limited since other modifications will becomeapparent to the skilled practitioner upon a study of the drawings,specification, and following claims.

We claim:
 1. A system comprising: a power supply to provide power to thesystem; and a Wi-Fi display (WFD) source device including: a compositorto generate one or more video streams and one or more video encodinghints, wherein the video encoding hints are to include one or more of alayer geometry hint or a dirty rectangle hint; a pre-encoding checker toperform pre-video encoding operations corresponding to the one or morevideo encoding hints; one or more encoders to encode the one or morevideo streams in one or more encoding sessions, wherein the layergeometry hint triggers the one or more encoders to insert I-frames intothe one or more encoded video streams to create an adaptive group ofpictures, and wherein the dirty rectangle hint triggers the one or moreencoders to only encode dirty areas of an image or apply differentquantization parameters to dirty areas, and one or more transmitters totransmit the one or more encoded video streams.
 2. The system of claim1, wherein the video encoding hints are to include one or more of astill scene hint or a transform matrix hint, wherein the still scenehint triggers the one or more encoders to insert skip frames into theone or more encoded video streams, and wherein the transform matrix hintincludes sub-window movement data or layer movement data that triggersthe one or more encoders to derive a sub-window motion vector or a layermovement motion vector.
 3. The system of claim 1, further comprising ascaler to generate a scaled motion vector predictor hint, and whereinhierarchical motion estimation (HME) operations are to be performed on afirst encoding session of the one or more encoding sessions that has afirst resolution.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein one or more secondencoding sessions that have a resolution lower than the first resolutionuse a video encoding hint including a motion vector prediction hint ofthe first encoding session and a scaling factor to obtain the scaledmotion vector prediction hint.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein thescaled motion vector prediction hint is to be applied to encoding stagesfor the one or more second encoding sessions.
 6. The system of claim 4,wherein the dirty rectangle hint is converted to a dirty region ofinterest to encode the one or more video streams, and wherein the dirtyregion of interest is scaled corresponding to the scaling factor, andwherein the scaling factor is equal to a ratio of a resolution of eachof the one or more second corresponding encoding sessions to theresolution of the first encoding session.
 7. A method comprising:generating, by a compositor, video content and one or more videoencoding hints; performing one or more pre-video encoding operations onthe video content corresponding to the one or more video encoding hints,wherein the video encoding hints include one or more of a layer geometryhint or a dirty rectangle; and encoding one or more video streams in oneor more encoding sessions, wherein the layer geometry hint triggers theone or more encoders to insert I-frames into the one or more encodedvideo streams to create an adaptive group of pictures, and wherein thedirty rectangle hint triggers the one or more encoders to only encodedirty areas of an image or apply different quantization parameters todirty areas.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the video encoding hintsinclude one or more of a still scene hint or a transform matrix hint,wherein the still scene hint triggers the one or more encoders to insertskip frames into the one or more encoded video streams, and wherein thetransform matrix hint includes sub-window movement data or layermovement data that triggers the one or more encoders to derive asub-window motion vector or a layer movement motion vector.
 9. Themethod of claim 7, further comprising: generating a scaled motion vectorpredictor hint; and performing one or more hierarchical motionestimation (HME) operations during a first encoding session of the oneor more encoding sessions that has a first resolution.
 10. The method ofclaim 9, wherein one or more second encoding sessions that have aresolution lower than the first resolution use a video encoding hintincluding a motion vector prediction hint of the first encoding sessionand a scaling factor to obtain the scaled motion vector prediction hint.11. The method of claim 10, wherein the scaled motion vector predictionhint is applied to one or more encoding stages associated with the oneor more second encoding sessions.
 12. The method of claim 10, whereinthe dirty rectangle hint is converted to a dirty region of interest toencode the one or more video streams, and wherein the dirty region ofinterest is scaled corresponding to the scaling factor, and wherein thescaling factor is equal to a ratio of a resolution of each of the one ormore second encoding sessions to the resolution of the first encodingsession.
 13. An apparatus comprising: a compositor to generate one ormore video streams and one or more video encoding hints, wherein thevideo encoding hints include one or more of a layer geometry hint or adirty rectangle hint; a pre-encoding checker to perform pre-videoencoding operations corresponding to the one or more video encodinghints; and one or more encoders to encode the one or more video streamsin one or more encoding sessions, wherein the layer geometry hinttriggers the one or more encoders to insert I-frames into the one ormore encoded video streams to create an adaptive group of pictures, andwherein the dirty rectangle hint triggers the one or more encoders toonly encode dirty areas of an image or apply different quantizationparameters to dirty areas.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein thevideo encoding hints are to include one or more of a still scene hint ora transform matrix hint, wherein the still scene hint triggers the oneor more encoders to insert skip frames into the one or more encodedvideo streams, and wherein the transform matrix hint includes sub-windowmovement data or layer movement data that triggers the one or moreencoders to derive a sub-window motion vector or a layer movement motionvector.
 15. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a scaler togenerate a scaled motion vector predictor hint, and wherein hierarchicalmotion estimation (HME) operations are to be performed on a firstencoding session of the one or more encoding sessions that has a firstresolution.
 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein one or more secondencoding sessions that have a resolution lower than the first resolutionuse a video encoding hint including a motion vector prediction hint ofthe first encoding session and a scaling factor to obtain the scaledmotion vector prediction hint.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, whereinthe scaled motion vector prediction hint is to be applied to encodingstages for the one or more second encoding sessions.
 18. The apparatusof claim 16, wherein the dirty rectangle hint is converted to a dirtyregion of interest to encode the one or more video streams, and whereinthe dirty region of interest is scaled corresponding to the scalingfactor, and wherein the scaling factor is equal to a ratio of aresolution of each of the one or more second corresponding encodingsessions to the resolution of the first encoding session.
 19. At leastone non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising a set ofinstructions, which when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatusto: generate video content and one or more video encoding hints, whereinthe video encoding hints include one or more of a layer geometry hint ora dirty rectangle hint; perform one or more pre-video encodingoperations on the video content corresponding to the one or more videoencoding hints; and encode one or more video streams in one or moreencoding sessions, wherein the layer geometry hint triggers the one ormore encoders to insert I-frames into the one or more encoded videostreams to create an adaptive group of pictures, and wherein the dirtyrectangle hint triggers the one or more encoders to only encode dirtyareas of an image or apply different quantization parameters to dirtyareas.
 20. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 19, wherein the video encoding hints include one or moreof a still scene hint or a transform matrix hint, wherein the stillscene hint triggers the one or more encoders to insert skip frames intothe one or more encoded video streams, and wherein the transform matrixhint includes sub-window movement data or layer movement data thattriggers the one or more encoders to derive a sub-window motion vectoror a layer movement motion vector.
 21. The at least one non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the set ofinstructions further cause the apparatus to: generate a scaled motionvector predictor hint, and perform one or more hierarchical motionestimation (HME) operations during a first encoding session of the oneor more encoding sessions that has a first resolution.
 22. The at leastone non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, whereinone or more second encoding sessions that have a resolution lower thanthe first resolution use a video encoding hint including a motion vectorprediction hint of the first encoding session and a scaling factor toobtain the scaled motion vector prediction hint, and wherein the scaledmotion vector prediction hint is applied to one or more encoding stagesassociated with the one or more second encoding sessions.
 23. A systemcomprising: one or more transmitter devices; a receiver device toreceive a Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) transport stream (TS) fromthe one or more transmitter devices; the receiver device comprising: aparameter extractor to extract transmitter device parameters from theMPEG-TS, wherein the transmitter device parameters include one or moreof a transmitter device model number or a uniform resource identifier(URI); a display manager to derive a transmitter identifiercorresponding to the extracted transmitter device parameters; and adisplay device to display a thumbnail image of the one or moretransmitter devices and an associated information bar that includes thetransmitter identifier.
 24. The system of claim 23, wherein thetransmitter device parameters include a friendly name, a transmitterdevice type, a transmitter device color, the transmitter device modelnumber, and the uniform resource identifier (URI), and wherein thetransmitter identifier is a unique transmitter identifier for individualtransmitter devices.
 25. The system of claim 23, wherein the thumbnailimage is a bitmap depicting a transmitter device type.